Reviewing Games

I would like to review 2 games initially, I have chosen 2 different styles – one a 2D game and the other a 3D game. Stardew Valley Farm is a 2D game and Witcher 3 is a 3D.

                                           Stardew Valley Farm.

Overview

Stardew valley farm is a 2D adventure game incorporating farming, cooking, socialising, fighting and fishing.

The game was developed by Eric Barone who spent 4 years working 10 hours per day, 7 days per week thinking that he could improve on the game of Harvest Moon.  Statistics show it was downloaded by more than 2 million steam users by the end of 2016 and current estimates put the profits to the Single Developer at around $30 million currently. He created this using C# as a language and Microsoft’s XNA as a platform because it was free.

Synopsis:

Farming and Foraging:
You have inherited a farm which is very dilapidated and overgrown. You will plant crops which must be watered every day to be able to sell for profit and thus be able to afford better crops, buildings for animals etc. There are 4 seasons and each time a season changes, most of the crops will die – thus you must not plant anything which takes too long to grow later in the season. In each season, you can also find foraged items specific to the season which can be sold or used in cooking. After buying the requisite buildings, you can also raise most animals which can be profitable.

Socialising:
There are about 30 villagers – each of whom you can give presents and do tasks to increase friendship (and this will give useful benefits such as recipes for cooking).

Cooking
Cooking will provide food from crops and other sources which provide energy (energy is used doing planting, watering, harvesting, fishing and other things) thus cooking is useful to increase your ability to progress quickly.

Mining

Mining:
Mining is a core part of Stardew valley – because without stone, Iron etc, you cannot craft the items to provide productivity or improve your tools such as Axe, Pickaxe and Sword. The major problem is that there are monsters in the mine that you have to fight and the deeper you go, the more likely you are to get the rarer metals for better upgrades but also the stronger the monsters get.

Fishing

Fishing:
Fishing is essentially a little minigame which can be entered by casting into any water to obtain fish – again there are many upgrades for this minigame.

Storyline:
There is actually a very open-ended storyline within Stardew valley farm which involves basically collecting many diverse and different items to restore a building in the town – the stages of this restoration give benefits to the player such as a greenhouse where crops can grow all year round, and minecarts for fast travel between the Farm, Mines, Town, Beach and Desert. In addition, there are continued storylines which give access to higher level buildings for automatic crop collection and instant transport to other areas.

One of my farms

Review

Stardew Valley farm does not on first impression look very polished because the graphics are essentially in a 2D cartoon style and thus give that impression, however, there have been only a small amount of largely insignificant bugs and upon trying it out, you will find it is very addictive and in fact what appears to be rudimentary graphics have been very well thought out and are indeed quite polished in their own way. The storyline and progression ensure that the player can play at their own rate and either not be overtaxed to make life simple and grow slowly or work much harder for faster profits. Part of the attraction of Stardew Valley Farm lies in always wanting to get the next upgrade or the next building which will give more progression and faster pathway to riches. With this progression, it is quite fun to sometimes start over and redo in a different way or continue playing way past the end of the storyline and thus is quite long-lived.

The cartoon style coupled with mining (where you have to fight), Farming, Cooking, Fishing and other skills has ensured that young and old, male and female are all interested in the gameplay and whatever your age, gender, race or creed, once tried it generally appeals.

Stardew Valley Farm has been going now for several years and as expected it had large amounts of sales initially with an expected reduction after 6 months – but it has continued to be popular with aftermarket add-ons such as Farmhouse size increases and other building enhancements and there is a whole community devoted to add-ons and enhancements which have kept it going well past what would have been a normal expiry date. In addition, Eric Barone who goes by the moniker Concerned Ape has just announced a multi-player version to be released in the next few months which has already been eagerly anticipated by many fans and this is sure to increase sales for another 3 to 6 months.

 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Overview

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a 3D adventure action role playing video game based upon a Polish author’s novel series incorporating fighting, socialising, magic and alchemy.

The game was developed by CD Projekt and released in 2015, selling over 4 million copies worldwide in just 2 weeks after it was released. The developers designed The Witcher 3 with the help of the previous players feedback’ and built with REDengine 3, a game engine developed by Projekt Red using Hacok for physics, Scaleform GFx for the user interface and FMOD for Audio. Witcher 3 has been considered one of the best role-playing games of all time. (IGN top 100 RPG’s of all time AND – PC Gamer – The best RPG’s of all time) 

Synopsis

You wake as a Witcher – a genetically enhanced monster hunter in the days of knights, dragons and peasants long ago with swords and armour. Starting in a region known as White Orchard and through questing opening other regions such as Velen, Novigrad and the Skellige Isles. The quests are in a mainly similar vein – simply “Go slay a monster” most of the time, however, due to the armour and weapons along with upgrades, this interestingly enough does not get boring as you would expect – Due to very realistic graphics, the world, creatures and companions around the world are very lifelike and with the realism, it never seems to tire. This is set in 3^rd Person perspective which is highly effective.

Start

After waking, you are “Guided” to the tutorial training area – much like a castle where there are friends to help you learn the basics – after this you are sent out with your companion to start the main storyline. The storyline takes different paths based upon your decisions to kill or spare people and upon what you say during the dialogues – thus there can be many different storylines and endings – some good, some bad.

Fighting
Silver Sword, Steel Sword, Armour, Crossbow

The armour and weapons consist of a silver sword used to fight monsters, a steel sword used to fight humans, a crossbow dealing little damage, but from a range and can be used underwater, gauntlets, boots, trousers and chest armour.

The combat kit (swords, armour, etc.) comes from different Witcher schools, each school giving them different traits, some giving strength, others giving speed and yet others giving bonus magic abilities. The main Witcher schools are the ones of The Wolf, The Cat and Griffin.

Upgrading
There are two ways to obtain armour and weapons, the first being simply to find them in chests scattered around the regions and the second method is to obtain the Witcher school gear diagrams and then craft the appropriate item using ingredients. It should be pointed out that Witcher School gear is generally far better having more advantages as a set. The diagrams can be found not only to obtain the school gear but also to upgrade it to different versions, by using items taken to an armourer/blacksmith who will craft the gear for you. Travelling to the cities and villages and reading the noticeboards or obtaining quests from people will give the Treasure Hunt quests to find these diagrams. 

Alchemy

Alchemy is used to craft potions, bombs and oils.
The potions are used for example if you have to fight in a poisonous cloud, your character can gain a higher resistance to poison for a period of time.
Bombs are used in combat to stun and damage enemies or destroy monsters’ nests.
Oils can be applied on your sword to gain extra strength against a certain type of monster. For example, if you have to fight a werewolf you should apply an oil on your sword to stop the creature from regenerating health very fast.

Review

Witcher 3 followed on from Witcher and Witcher 2 to revive the sales of the series in general. Sales of the series started out high as expected and each time sales fell, the development company produced the next series.

The graphics are extremely polished, offering a high degree of realism and it is a visual treat for the eyes. With the constant battle to upgrade there is always something for the player to do or find to be able to reach the next area and also be able to survive and prosper throughout the game. The story line is quite intricate and the decisions you make may kill off people or whole communities and can have good or adverse effects and give vastly different story lines to each person.

Witcher 3 has been marketed since 2015 and although very strong sales were had in 2016, obviously sales have declined since then and it is expected that the current life may be only until the end of 2018 in my opinion. We should imagine that the software company will be bringing another title or part of these series out in the not too distant future.

Witcher 3 has also used a similar ploy to keep the game going – whereby someone can do the storyline again after finishing with a high level character and everything scales up for the re-run, character levels, monsters, everything is higher. This seems to be a good idea and if I had the time to finish the game, I would consider doing the high level re-run and thus life expectancy is probably quite high.

Comparing Similar Games

I have chosen 2 games of each style to compare with Stardew Valley and Witcher.

The 2D games are Terraria and Harvest Moon as follows.

Terraria – 2D game

Similarities:

-          Terraria has a similar graphics style quite cartoon like and not lifelike at all – which you would expect from any 2d game.

-          It has a Similar play style ( dig for ores, find resources, fight monsters and fishing)

Differences:

-          The Major difference between the two games is the viewpoint – Stardew Valley farm is plan view oriented and you walk around a floor – whereas Terraria is a Mario style front orthographic view which means you have to dig down underground to use some of the map and build platforms to reach up in the trees.

-          Although they are quite similar, Stardew Valley is a farming simulation game while Terraria is a sandbox type of game, focusing on fighting enemies and building houses with resources – There is not really much of a storyline – whereas Stardew Valley Farm has quests and some semblance of questing to form a general storyline.

-           

Harvest Moon -2D game

-          Similar graphics, similar story, similar gameplay.

-          Similar game style (farming simulation game).

-          Has seasons and Events just like in Stardew Valley.

-          Has socialising with npc and can also marry them just like in Stardew Valley.

As Stardew Valley is an adaptation of Harvest moon, everything is very similar which you would expect, although Stardew Valley has fighting (in the mines) and the game is much more complete than Harvest Moon.

Similar Witcher 3 games (RPG games)

Horizon : Zero Dawn

 

Similarities:

-          3D rpg Open world game which Features a main character followed by a story

-          Quests, Combat: Fight against monsters and humans and a world to explore

-          Has an ability tree.

Differences:

-          The main difference: the main character is female, the player uses a bow and a spear to fight, has a stealth mechanic combat, post-apocalyptic scenery, the monsters are robots, the story is set in the 31^st century

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Similarities:

-          3D open world RPG which is part of a game series

-          Features Main Quests and side quests playable as first or third person

-          Players can navigate the game world quicker on a horse or using fast travel.

-          The game seems to be set in a similar period of time.

-          Has a skill tree.

-          Combat uses weapons and armour (which can be bought, found or forged) and also the use of magic spells.

Differences:

-          The players can engage in jobs such as farming and can also join factions

 Conclusions

From the Comparisons and reviews above there are several things we can gain from the above.

1.       A Game does not have to be 3D with amazing polished graphics to succeed and provide hours of entertainment for players – 2D works just as well and is cheaper to produce.

2.       Some form of storyline or quests in sequences are quite important to obtain good sales and return sales throughout the life of the product.

3.       Upgrades or a skill tree through resource collecting, cooking, crafting etc. are really needed to provide a balance as the going gets tough – whether trying to plant and water a large field of several hundred crops in a day or whether trying to fight stronger monster – one does need upgrades.

4.       Socialising is also another useful trait to have because we are all inquisitive at heart and would love to get something new or something better or find some useful secret.